


Overnight

by TwinVax



Series: Critrole Stories [24]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Drabble, Episode 26 spoilers, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Nott POV, Self-Esteem Issues, Tumblr Prompt, all the stories today have been spoilers, but really, caleb is a sad, nott overhears, the others are implied - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 04:24:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15283578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinVax/pseuds/TwinVax
Summary: Nott overhears Caleb talking in the night.





	Overnight

Nott would never let Caleb be on watch by himself. He’s her boy, but besides that, he’s human and as he had proven time and again, unable to see in the dark. He was a wonderful man, but he still played by the laws of human genetics stuff. 

So when she felt him shift from where he was sleeping beside her, so he could keep watch on his own, she woke up too. She stayed silent, eyes closed, pretending to sleep while he set himself up to stay awake for the last few hours. 

It was difficult, when he started to monologue self deprecating things at himself, to stop her ears from twitching up and giving her away. She managed, if only because he wasn’t really looking at her, while he was talking about the others. 

She kind of agreed about what he said about them, even while she knew what he said was a load of bullshit. She had seen how he had opened up around them, how happy he was to be in the group, and was aware it was just the things that had happened today that made him say this stuff. 

She was very bad at lying herself, but so was he, when she had known him for months. Long enough to tell when he genuinely liked people. 

It hurt, still, to hear him call her a liability. That he had to try so hard as to call her a danger and worthless to him in order to try and convince himself he didn’t care. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t have tried so hard. 

If he didn’t care, he would have already left. 

She knew that, but it still scared her. She would have followed him even if he hadn’t invited her along. 

She stayed still as Caleb went silent, and kept her face as peaceful as possible when she felt him run his fingers through her hair, petting her like he did when he knew she was usually asleep. Sometimes, like this moment, she would wake up to this gesture or be pretending to sleep for his benefit. 

He gently removed his hand from her hair, after one last swipe moved it out of her face, and stayed silent, the scratching telling her he was petting through Frumpkin’s feathers instead. Probably to keep from waking her with his head petting. 

She stayed awake anyway, waiting for him to stand. To leave like he had threatened himself with. 

He never did. He stayed where he sat, watching over them all. 

His sadness and hopelessness hurt her, more than him trying to convince himself he didn’t love her, and she wanted nothing more than to comfort him. She knew she couldn’t though, that he couldn’t know she had heard him or he would clam up and hide away, back in his shell. 

She would help him be okay, prove that his words had no truth to them, however she would be able to throughout this mission. 

He stayed, and she lied awake, watching over him. 

He stayed, both knowing his words held no truth. 


End file.
